IBM Notes Browser Plug-in released as part of IBM Notes 9 release
is a great product which allows you to open any existing Notes/Domino
Applications inside a browser. If you have created new applications
using XPages or converted your old ones using XPages, they can be opened
in browser even without this plug-in. The Notes Browser Plug-in is for
older apps which you do not want to or cannot convert to XPages.

As can be seen from the above picture, a combination IBM Notes Browser Plug-in & IBM iNotes together provides the same functionality in a browser as you would expect from an installed Notes Client. Your Mail access will be via iNotes and the applications can be accessed via the Browser Plug-in, all within the context of the same Browser. And you will have support for all the features you are used to in the Notes Client - mainly, Local Replica, Replication Page, Workspace.

Key functionality here is the tighter integration between the Notes applications running inside the browser & IBM iNotes. I will try to summarize the integration capability added in the IBM Notes 9 release.

As we talk about Mail & App integration (iNotes & Browser Plug-in), following are the integration points supported:

Access to applications when in IBM iNotes:

We have provided a button on iNotes so you can launch to the welcome page of the IBM Notes Browser Plug-in: ->

If you have a Document Link/View link or DB Link in an Email you open up, as long as the link has a URL of "notes://" (look for the link url on the status bar), this will then launch the Notes Browser Plug-in and open the content inside the same browser (a new tab). Please make sure the Domino server has a setting to format the link as Notes:// link instead (or in addition to) http://

Mail integration in IBM Notes Browser Plug-in

IBM Notes Browser Plug-in does not allow you to open mailfile or mail applications in the plug-in.

Trying to open your mailfile via the workspace, or mail bookmark will get re-directed to your mailfile in iNotes. So it's seamless for the user to open his/her iNotes mail from the Plug-in.

Any mail operation you do in your application, such as "Action->Forward", will create a new memo in iNotes and include your document in the BODY of the email.

Any back-end mail operation done in your application will work as is.

We do not expect any issues when using your applications and any mail based workflow you might have.

There is also an icon on the Notes Browser Plug-in menubar to launch iNotes similar to the above icon on iNotes launch bar.

So all you need to do is to upgrade to IBM iNotes 9 to get the new icon to launch the IBM Notes Browser Plug-in, and install the Notes Browser Plug-in 9 on your desktop, and use these together to get your work done. For this release, we only support Windows & Citrix OS and IE/Firefox browsers. But hopefully that will cover a major sets of users who can try this new functionality in the product. Give us your feedback on your experience.

As I write this blog, IBM Notes 9 is released for general availability (GA). I am so happy about this as me & my team have been working really hard on the Notes 9, and the Notes Browser Plug-in for the past 1.5 years. Good to see it released so customers can also use & love what we have put out. Here are some links on where you can get hold of IBM Notes 9 & rest of the released components:

Customers go
here...

Passport Online/PSPT -
>http://www-306.ibm.com/software/howtobuy/passportadvantage/index.htmlCustomer base: Passport Advantage and Passport Express customers.
Customer received a user name and password when they first enroll in the PA
program. The customers are provided downloads of all DSW products they have
purchased through the Passport licensing program.

I have seen some cool YouTube videos. The most hilarious is this one -> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l0ydEz3ddeo&feature=youtu.be

The one I like which shows the IBM Notes Browser Plug-in in action as used by one of the user to test is -> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oSxvayxOfXc(Thanks Ben for complimenting us)

For folks that want to try the Notes Browser Plug-in, you can definitely use the Standard Client installer, and select the option (under Notes Client twistie) to install the Notes Browser Plug-in also.

I am excited about the entire product as the development team has worked hard to make all the enhancements requested by you, the customer. I am also, very eagerly, looking forward to your feedback for the "Notes Browser Plug-in", which is part of this beta. Encourage everyone to try this out. The announcement mentioned the plug-in as "IBM Notes Browser Plug-in: allows rapid delivery of IBM Notes Social Edition applications to the web". So please try and provide the feedback in the forum.

As we went into the Public Beta, we have made some changes to how you install this Notes Browser Plug-in. Prior to these changes, we had a separate installer for the Plug-in, and what it meant was that the user could either have Standard Client (or Basic) OR Notes Plug-in. We found that the users needed to gradually move to the plug-in, atleast those that are using Standard Client now, and will need to switch between the Standard Client, and iNotes/Browser Plug-in combination.

So as you download and try to install the standard client, we now provide you the following option:

selecting the "notes browser plug-in" option will install the add-ons into the Firefox & Internet Explorer browsers so you can work on your notes applications inside these browsers. Go ahead and try. All you need to do after the install is to bring up FF or IE, and type "notes:home" (make sure you are not running any notes client at this point - since we do not support running the 2 clients simultaneously).

I hope you all have checked out Ed Brill's latest blog announcing the Public Beta of Notes/Domino 9 Social Edition. If not, please see this -> http://www.edbrill.com/ebrill/edbrill.nsf

I attended the Webcast for this event, and could see the presentation, and the nice demos. Very well done by Ed, Scott and the rest of the team.

Very excited about all the cool things in this release that we have been working on. And looking forward to all of you getting hold of this when the Public Beta goes out in mid-December. Very cool features in the Client, iNotes, Social Capability in both, and also the new flavor of the client "IBM Notes Browser Plug-in". Lots of demos, so please download them when available and drool over.

As the public beta gets closer I will try to post more information on some new features. For those attending IBM Connect 2013 in orlando Florida in January 2013, you can see and hear about all the features in detail at that conference.